Demand response performance and uncertainty: A systematic literature review

The present review has been carried out, resorting to the PRISMA methodology, analyzing 218 published articles. A comprehensive analysis has been conducted regarding the consumer's role in the energy market. Moreover, the methods used to address demand response uncertainty and the strategies used to enhance performance and motivate participation have been reviewed. The authors find that participants will be willing to change their consumption pattern and behavior given that they have a complete awareness of the market environment, seeking the optimal decision. The authors also find that a contextual solution, giving the right signals according to the different behaviors and to the different types of participants in the DR event, can improve the performance of consumers' participation, providing a reliable response. DR is a mean of demand-side management, so both these concepts are addressed in the present paper. Finally, the pathways for future research are discussed.This article is a result of the project RETINA (NORTE-01-0145- FEDER-000062), supported by Norte Portugal Regional Operational Programme (NORTE 2020), under the PORTUGAL 2020 Partnership Agreement, through the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF). We also acknowledge the work facilities and equipment provided by GECAD research center (UIDB/00760/2020) to the project team, and grants CEECIND/02887/2017 and SFRH/BD/144200/2019.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

A pre-crisis vs. crisis analysis of peripheral EU stock markets by means of wavelet transform and a nonlinear causality test

This paper presents an analysis of EU peripheral (so-called PIIGS) stock market indices and the SandP Europe 350 index (SPEURO), as a European benchmark market, over the pre-crisis (2004 2007) and crisis (2008 2011) periods. We computed a rolling-window wavelet correlation for the market returns and applied a non-linear Granger causality test to the wavelet decomposition coefficients of these stock market returns. Our results show that the correlation is stronger for the crisis than for the pre-crisis period. The stock market indices from Portugal, Italy and Spain were more interconnected among themselves during the crisis than with the SPEURO. The stock market from Portugal is the most sensitive and vulnerable PIIGS member, whereas the stock market from Greece tends to move away from the European benchmark market since the 2008 financial crisis till 2011. The non-linear causality test indicates that in the first three wavelet scales (intraweek, weekly and fortnightly) the number of uni-directional and bi-directional causalities is greater during the crisis than in the pre-crisis period, because of financial contagion. Furthermore, the causality analysis shows that the direction of the Granger cause effect for the pre-crisis and crisis periods is not invariant in the considered time-scales, and that the causality directions among the studied stock markets do not seem to have a preferential direction. These results are relevant to better understand the behaviour of vulnerable stock markets, especially for investors and policymakers. © 2017 Elsevier B.V

Proprioceptive contribution to oculomotor control in humans

This work was supported by an award from the Wellcome Trust Institutional Strategic Support Fund at the University of St Andrews, grant code 204821/Z/16/Z (DB).Stretch receptors in the extraocular muscles (EOMs) inform the central nervous system about the rotation of one's own eyes in the orbits. Whereas fine control of the skeletal muscles hinges critically on proprioceptive feedback, the role of proprioception in oculomotor control remains unclear. Human behavioural studies provide evidence for EOM proprioception in oculomotor control, however, behavioural and electrophysiological studies in the macaque do not. Unlike macaques, humans possess numerous muscle spindles in their EOMs. To find out whether the human oculomotor nuclei respond to proprioceptive feedback we used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). With their eyes closed, participants placed their right index finger on the eyelid at the outer corner of the right eye. When prompted by a sound, they pushed the eyeball gently and briefly towards the nose. Control conditions separated out motor and tactile task components. The stretch of the right lateral rectus muscle was associated with activation of the left oculomotor nucleus and subthreshold activation of the left abducens nucleus. Because these nuclei control the horizontal movements of the left eye, we hypothesized that proprioceptive stimulation of the right EOM triggered left eye movement. To test this, we followed up with an eye-tracking experiment in complete darkness using the same behavioural task as in the fMRI study. The left eye moved actively in the direction of the passive displacement of the right eye, albeit with a smaller amplitude. Eye tracking corroborated neuroimaging findings to suggest a proprioceptive contribution to ocular alignment.Publisher PDFPeer reviewe

Time series forecasting with the WARIMAX-GARCH method

It is well-known that causal forecasting methods that include appropriately chosen Exogenous Variables (EVs) very often present improved forecasting performances over univariate methods. However, in practice, EVs are usually difficult to obtain and in many cases are not available at all. In this paper, a new causal forecasting approach, called Wavelet Auto-Regressive Integrated Moving Average with eXogenous variables and Generalized Auto-Regressive Conditional Heteroscedasticity (WARIMAX-GARCH) method, is proposed to improve predictive performance and accuracy but also to address, at least in part, the problem of unavailable EVs. Basically, the WARIMAX-GARCH method obtains Wavelet “EVs” (WEVs) from Auto-Regressive Integrated Moving Average with eXogenous variables and Generalized Auto-Regressive Conditional Heteroscedasticity (ARIMAX-GARCH) models applied to Wavelet Components (WCs) that are initially determined from the underlying time series. The WEVs are, in fact, treated by the WARIMAX-GARCH method as if they were conventional EVs. Similarly to GARCH and ARIMA-GARCH models, the WARIMAX-GARCH method is suitable for time series exhibiting non-linear characteristics such as conditional variance that depends on past values of observed data. However, unlike those, it can explicitly model frequency domain patterns in the series to help improve predictive performance. An application to a daily time series of dam displacement in Brazil shows the WARIMAX-GARCH method to remarkably outperform the ARIMA-GARCH method, as well as the (multi-layer perceptron) Artificial Neural Network (ANN) and its wavelet version referred to as Wavelet Artificial Neural Network (WANN) as in [1], on statistical measures for both in-sample and out-of-sample forecasting

Wound healing and hyper-hydration - a counter intuitive model

Winters seminal work in the 1960s relating to providing an optimal level of moisture to aid wound healing (granulation and re-epithelialisation) has been the single most effective advance in wound care over many decades. As such the development of advanced wound dressings that manage the fluidic wound environment have provided significant benefits in terms of healing to both patient and clinician. Although moist wound healing provides the guiding management principle confusion may arise between what is deemed to be an adequate level of tissue hydration and the risk of developing maceration. In addition, the counter-intuitive model ‘hyper-hydration’ of tissue appears to frustrate the moist wound healing approach and advocate a course of intervention whereby tissue is hydrated beyond what is a normally acceptable therapeutic level. This paper discusses tissue hydration, the cause and effect of maceration and distinguishes these from hyper-hydration of tissue. The rationale is to provide the clinician with a knowledge base that allows optimisation of treatment and outcomes and explains the reasoning behind wound healing using hyper-hydration

Phosphinecarboxamide based InZnP QDs – an air tolerant route to luminescent III–V semiconductors

We describe a new synthetic methodology for the preparation of high quality, emission tuneable InP-based quantum dots (QDs) using a solid, air- and moisture-tolerant primary phosphine as a group-V precursor. This presents a significantly simpler synthetic pathway compared to the state-of-the-art precursors currently employed in phosphide quantum dot synthesis which are volatile, dangerous and air-sensitive, e.g. P(Si(CH3)3)3

Efeito de fertilizantes nitrogenados na produtividade de melão

Em Petrolina, PE, foi realizado um estudo com a cultura do melão (Cucumis melo L.), Valenciano Amarelo, num Latossolo, para avaliar o efeito de fontes de fertilizantes nitrogenados e de suas combinações. O delineamento experimental foi em blocos casualizados com arranjo em faixa, com quatro repetições e nove tratamentos englobando a testemunha e os fertilizantes nitrogenados na dose de 80 kg/ha de N, aplicados no solo e, ou, via água de irrigação, por um período de 42 dias após a germinação. Esses tratamentos foram: Uréia e Sulfato de Amônio isolados; Uréia (15 dias) + Nitrato de Potássio (16-42 dias); Uréia (15 dias) + Sulfato de Amônio (16-42 dias); Uréia (30 dias) + Nitrato de Potássio (31-42 dias); Uréia (15 dias) + Sulfato de Amônio (16-30 dias) + Nitrato de Potássio (31-42 dias). A uréia aplicada via fertirrigação até 42 dias proporcionou maior rendimento (31,14 t/ha), embora não estatisticamente diferente dos demais tratamentos. A testemunha e o sulfato de amônio mostraram-se menos produtivos, com rendimentos de 25,06 e 24,65 t/ha, respectivamente. O peso médio do fruto variou de 1,63 a 1,84 kg/fruto, e o teor de sólidos solúveis totais, de 12,1 a 13,1 ºBrix; não se verificaram diferenças estatísticas

Noise Sources in Photometry and Radial Velocities

The quest for Earth-like, extrasolar planets (exoplanets), especially those located inside the habitable zone of their host stars, requires techniques sensitive enough to detect the faint signals produced by those planets. The radial velocity (RV) and photometric transit methods are the most widely used and also the most efficient methods for detecting and characterizing exoplanets. However, presence of astrophysical "noise" makes it difficult to detect and accurately characterize exoplanets. It is important to note that the amplitude of such astrophysical noise is larger than both the signal of Earth-like exoplanets and state-of-the-art instrumentation limit precision, making this a pressing topic that needs to be addressed. In this chapter, I present a general review of the main sources of noise in photometric and RV observations, namely, stellar oscillations, granulation, and magnetic activity. Moreover, for each noise source I discuss the techniques and observational strategies which allow us to mitigate their impact.Comment: 11 pages, 2 tables, Lecture presented at the IVth Azores International Advanced School in Space Sciences on "Asteroseismology and Exoplanets: Listening to the Stars and Searching for New Worlds" (arXiv:1709.00645), which took place in Horta, Azores Islands, Portugal in July 201

Green manure in coffee systems in the region of Zona da Mata, Minas Gerais: characteristics and kinetics of carbon and nitrogen mineralization.

The use of green manure may contribute to reduce soil erosion and increase the soil organic matter content and N availability in coffee plantations in the Zona da Mata, State of Minas Gerais, in Southeastern Brazil. The potential of four legumes (A. pintoi, C. mucunoides, S. aterrimum and S. guianensis)to produce above-ground biomass, accumulate nutrients and mineralize N was studied in two coffee plantations of subsistence farmers under different climate conditions. The biomass production of C. mucunoides was influenced by the shade of the coffee plantation.C. mucunoides tended to mineralize more N than the other legumes due to the low polyphenol content and polyphenol/N ratio. In the first year, the crop establishment of A. pintoi in the area took longer than of the other legumes, resulting in lower biomass production and N2 fixation. In the long term, cellulose was the main factor controlling N mineralization. The biochemical characteristics, nutrient accumulation and biomass production of the legumes were greatly influenced by the altitude and position of the area relative to the sun

The design and evaluation of travelling gun irrigation systems: enrolador software

Technical Paperinfo:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio